Still the Key
by thehush
Summary: Buffy's gift might have been death but Dawn's gift was Life. Spoilers for season 6 and 7.


Still the Key  
  
To my brilliant Beta, Aggie  
  
---  
  
She had been waiting for this moment for a long time. Saw the seed slip over her sister's lips and bury into her mind, blossoming into poisonous lilies that had no place in the world. Calmly, Dawn stood just outside the room where Giles and Buffy sat, the old watcher whispering words that had yet to be said to anyone else.  
  
Dawn already knew them. Ever since Buffy said she would pay attention to her more, it wrapped around her. Her sister couldn't be alive for anyone else, she was only brought back to do one thing - Slay. That was the gift of the Slayer - death. Buffy was Death in all her fine features. She didn't need a black cloak or a skeleton body; all she needed was her being. Beyond her strength, beyond her abilities - there lied her soul. It in itself was the key to laying all who walked beside her to rest.  
  
She hadn't realized it until now - that Buffy in her own right - was a Goddess.  
  
That's when it came, the fire. She felt it run through her, because they were connected. Buffy's blood was her own. When the boil of rage and death rushed through the house, Dawn crept up the stairs into Willow's room, and kept a keen ear to the door.  
  
Death, Slayer, Goddess, her sister, their Buffy - slapped Willow so hard the room around Dawn turned red. "I wasn't suppose come back!"  
  
The world ached as everyone in the house ran into the entryway. Only she stayed in Willow's room, silently sliding her soft hands over a sacred dagger. In the back of her mind, she asked Tara for permission - because it was she who taught her, never to touch a Wiccan's belongings without asking.  
  
A whisper echoed through her. {What are you doing, dear-heart?}  
  
Dawn closed her eyes, shutting out the screaming and yelling that floated up from downstairs. "I've been thinking about who I am, Tara."  
  
The dagger slid easily out of its sheath. {You are a Key.}  
  
She nodded. "But to how many doors?"  
  
The red of the room dulled and the blue moonlight broke through a patch of clouds. A faint figure was outlined just along the window. Dawn could barely make out Tara's haunting eyes. {Ah. I see you've discovered something that the monks didn't plan on. Yes, you're a Key, but not just any Key - not anymore. You're like. a Skeleton Key. Now that you're human, now that you can think for yourself, you can unlock anything. The monks forgot about free will. Forgot about the possibility that maybe none of their kind would survive to destroy you. Fate changes our destinies and our purposes so drastically that death and life can be created with the same blood. You know who are; you know what you have to do to stop all this. But know that right now, you have a gift, just as Buffy has - but what are you? Death or life?}  
  
Tara's figure flickered with the sudden breeze that lifted the curtains up. Dawn looked down at her outstretched arm and placed the tip of the blade to the skin. "I forgot the symbol that the monks wrote down."  
  
There was a faint nod before a book flew out of Dawn's bookshelf and down the hall into the room. She had stolen back the journal the monks kept a month ago, before Giles had taken Willow to England. She had book marked the page that described her being and held the drawing of the symbol that opened her power fully.  
  
She would need all the strength she could get.  
  
{You know I am only a ghost here - I can only whisper to you as you have to me.} Tara replied sadly, her eyes still visible from the window.  
  
Dawn began to etch the symbol into her skin. "You weren't suppose to die, Tara."  
  
The specter shook her head. {Couldn't be helped. Even something so simple as returning can cause our life lines to fade. There's so much that would have never happened if we hadn't meddled with fate. Even if we were a little bit happier, we never truly brought her back. Buffy's purpose is Death - you can't reverse that.}  
  
She carved the symbol deeper into her skin and didn't cry when her blood hit the floor. Slowly, very slowly, Dawn made herself walk back out into the hall. The screaming had stopped, as had the yelling - now there was only sobbing and whispers. This was her time, her place.  
  
Stopping halfway down, she watched sadly as each of them turned toward her. It happened almost suddenly, like the moment someone gets shot. The world froze and in that space where nothing moves, nothing changes - a tear fell down Dawn's cheek.  
  
She was life.  
  
It happened. The blood that flowed through her stopped and turned to energy. It was like rushing water over a stone - smooth yet raging with untold purpose. In it, memory and life intertwined- and eons of human history melded with beast and bird. Supernatural and natural became one and Death stood with Life like sisters.  
  
The world was gone and in it's place, there stood two beings.  
  
Glowing in an unearthly white light, Dawn looked toward Buffy. Her sister stood shadowed in a darkness that only death could create. {'I figured it out, Buffy.'}  
  
The Slayer nodded, voice calm and mature like the day she died. {'What are you going to do?'}  
  
Dawn looked down at her bare feet - she hadn't noticed it when time stopped. Looking around the void, she wondered what sort of place it was. There, in that space, the world changed and they stood in a field with sundresses lifting slightly in the breeze. That void was human memory.  
  
She smiled softly again, looking back at the essence of her sister. {'I'm going to fix things. I'm going to not miss you so much. cause I know your happier watching us from afar.'}  
  
Buffy laughed lightly, the noise like thunder in the never-ending fields. {'You'd sacrifice living in a world with me in it. to have a world where you have a new family, new friends, a better future. You'd be giving up a lot you know. Changing a history doesn't necessarily mean your not going to go through some of the same things. Do you think you're strong enough to face your future without your big sister?'}  
  
The question wasn't mean, it was the truth. Dawn nodded, reaching out and embracing her sister. {'I'm a Summers-'} That word. Summers. That name. It shook the world around them and what was a simple field cracked and created a river. {'Strength is our blood.'}  
  
Tightening her hold on Dawn, Buffy sniffed back her tears. {'Make me proud, Dawnie.'}  
  
Without words, without moving - her sister let go and fell back into the river that wound itself around them. The world froze again, except instead of flashing through to another place, Dawn was left to a sightless void, where only darkness cradled her.  
  
{Dawn, listen to me.}  
  
She was in her own memory. This is where the power began.  
  
{Listen. I love you. I will always love you. But this is the work that I have to do.}  
  
Dawn knew she no longer had a body - she felt the warmth that was her original form.  
  
{Tell Giles... tell Giles I figured it out. And, and I'm okay. And give my love to my friends. You have to take care of them now. You have to take care of each other.}  
  
The memory of the day Willow resurrected Buffy, appeared perfectly along the outer reaches of the void. It was as fresh as the day she had found out.  
  
{You have to be strong.}  
  
Reaching out with her being, she took hold of the doorway to that slice of time that would soon be changed. This was it- {Goodbye, Buffy. Your gift. is mine.}  
  
Somewhere, far beyond the place where timelines seemed like thread in a loom; where a Key in the shape of a girl opened a door - the Powers That Be nodded with approval.  
  
{Dawn, the hardest thing in this world... is to live in it. Be brave. Live. For me.}  
  
----  
  
Sunlight peeked through frost-like curtains and fell gently across pale cheeks. Dawn Summers awoke at her desk. Looking around, she stared at her room as if she had never seen it before. She knew this day, she knew what would happen on it - and yet it made her smile. With waking up at that moment, she had changed her entire future - their entire future. With getting up and walking out into the hallway - she had changed everything. This was her gift.  
  
Down the stairs, she crept quietly into the entryway, watching as her makeshift family sat around Willow with the last Urn of Osiris. "Don't do it."  
  
Everyone turned and looked her way. It was hopeless now to stuff the urn back into its box. It was hopeless to make excuses. They knew that she knew- even if she didn't tell them that she had just walked down the stairs.  
  
Dawn's voice was calm and mature like Buffy's. She didn't want to tell them about the would be future - that was a place she had already destroyed - all she wanted to do, was point out one last hope. "Don't raise her. You'd be throwing away what Buffy gave us the night she died." She motioned around the entryway. "This is her gift. This is what she wanted. You think the world needs her back? You're wrong- you're all very _very_ wrong. The world needs _us_ living in it- living our lives. She did everything she could to make sure we could do that. I thought that too- that the world would be better off with her in it. but I was wrong. I thought about it. I thought about it a lot. If you bring her back, Willow, just so she could slay again- just so we can see her in the flesh- her life would be meaningless. I don't want to see my sister suffer. just because we miss her."  
  
A tear fell down Willow's cheek as she looked around at everyone else. "I." she bit her lip before closing her eyes. "I miss her so much."  
  
Now, Dawn's eyes ached with unshed tears. "I bet she knows that. more than anything."  
  
Willow sniffed up her tears, even as more slid down her reddening cheeks. "I'm sorry Dawn." she raised the urn over her head and closed her eyes. With everything muscle in her body, Willow threw the urn toward the wall and turned away before it shattered across the living room. The young witch buried her head into Tara's warm embrace as loud sobs echoed through the house. "I'm so. sorry."  
  
{I love you. I will always love you.}  
  
Dawn let one tear slid down her cheek as she smiled. "I love you too." 


End file.
